Minutes

Athletic Advisory Committee of the University Senate

November 27, 2007

Present:  Henry Vu, James Emig, Michael Maggitti, Vince Nicastro, George Pinchock, Ernest Ramirez, Daniel Regan, Robert Langran, Lynn Tighe, Rich Freccia

Excused: Henry Nichols,John Paget,

Absent: John Stack, Frank Pryor, Nicholas Irion

Meeting was called to order my Dr. Regan. Election of officers for the committee was held and Dr. Regan is the chair and Mary Quilter will serve as secretary.

Dr. Regan turned the meeting over to the Athletic Director Vince Nicastro for this annual report to the Committee.

• Both Men’s and Women’s Basketball team were successful in their Thanksgiving tournaments. The Men’s team was 4-1 at the Old Spice Tournament in Orlando Florida and the Women’s team had the same record in San Francisco at the Odwalla Tournament 4-1.
• The Davis facility has been open for two weeks and it has been well received by the Villanova Community.  The Center was built by donor support at 18.7m and was completed on time and within budget. The Center is open from 7am until 11PM during regular school sessions.
• The lead donors to the Center were Jim (VU ’82 and Bill (VU ’85) Davis.
• Mick Keelan, Assistant AD for Facilities and Operations, worked with both basketball coaches to customize their practice courts, their locker rooms, and their office suites.
• The Committee will have a tour of the Center after the business of the meeting is concluded.

Henry Vu, the Student Basketball Ticket lottery contact advised that so far, there have been few complaints about the new lottery system. There have been large crowds awaiting entry into the Pavilion due to the swiping of Wildcards, and a solution to that problem is pending.

Rich Freccia asked about the usage of the Pavilion now that the teams have their own practice facilities.

Vince advised that the courts will still be used during the season by our teams as well as the visiting teams. Both want to practice on the floor on which they will be playing. The vacated office for Men’s Basketball will be reconfigured to a meeting space and a reception area.

Jim Emig asked is the Intramural teams would be permitted to play on the new practice courts.

  Vince advised that at this time, no teams other than the varsity teams would be permitted use of the new courts.

Bob Langran asked about the traffic flow for the games. As a neighbor, Dr. Langran noted the noise level for Villanova events has greatly decreased but for non-Villanova events, the decibel level is too high.

  Vince replied that so far, the flow has been working well; the vehicles enter on Ithan Avenue and exit at the rear of the parking lot. The parking area at the rear of the Pavilion has been reconfigured and repaved. Vince will be sure that the facility supervisor on duty during the non-Villanova events will be  made aware of this problem.

Bob Langran questioned the scheduling of 1A teams in the football schedule. Do the benefits of playing these teams outweigh the fact that if we lose, such as we did this year, it probably cost us a trip to the playoffs whereas had we played a team from our own division and were fortunate enough to win  we would have gotten a bid to the playoffs, and the other factor is the injury risk when playing teams from 1A that are usually bigger and deeper.

Vince noted that there were financial benefits to this scheduling. These teams have large fan attendance at their home fields and draw large crowds of fan at Villanova home games. It is also a good tool for recruiting prospective students/players.  We have contracts with IA teams through 2012 but will not make any new commitments for a couple of years pending an evaluation of this practice.

Rich Freccia noted that scheduling Temple seems to be a good choice for the football program. He also asked how close Villanova football was to making the playoffs.

  Vince noted that Temple is on the schedule for four years (2009-2012).

Villanova was very surprised that a 7-4 team from our conference was selected for the playoffs. As it turnedout, New Hampshire was selected, possibly based on the fact that they beat a 1A team on the road.

Old business:

Dan Regan asked for a status of the boathouse for the Women’s Crew team and the Men’s Crew Club.

  Villanova has joined with the Whitemarsh Boat Club in a venture on the Schuylkill River. Our sculls are store at this new facility as well as the old warehouse facility. There are planned additions to this facility to which Villanova has made a financial commitment. The facility will be shared with LaSalle, Mount St. Joseph’s, and Philadelphia University.

Rich Freccia was curious about the men’s and women’s teams and how it was working out that the Women’s status was team and the Men’s status is Club.

Many of the events for crew include both team and club crews. All NCAA events are limited to varsity teams.

  Our varsity team and club share space, boats, launches, oars, and other equipment.

Michal Maggitti asked if the club/team situation was related to Title IX.

Vince advised that the decision to have the Women’s Crew designated as a varsity team (which may have up to 50 members) would offset the football team membership for Title XI purposes.

Bob Langran asked about the distribution of part time and full time coaches.

  There are more full time coaches than ever before was they reply from Vince.

Rich Freccia asked if Villanova had any thoughts having the football program entered into the Patriot League?

  Vince replied that because of the scholarship situation, Villanova will stay where they are at this time.

After the meeting the Committee toured the new Davis Center.

Submitted by Mary Quilter, November 29, 2007.